On April 20, our daughter, sister, teammate and friend was diagnosed with Leukemia (AML). This cancer is placing her in the hospital for 6 months while she has chemotherapy. Right now her goal is to be able to walk at her senior graduation on June 6. She is determined to beat this cancer with her family, friends and soccer team by her side. We hope this blog will be able to keep our friends and family updated and involved in her journey to 'Kick Leukemia!'

Thursday, July 26, 2012

To our Family, Friends and Lexe Supporters,
On September 29th, CureSearch will be having its annual walk in Salt Lake City. The walk will be held at Sugar House Park (1300East 2100 South). CureSearch is a organization that raises money and awareness strictly for childhood cancer (most cancer organization only give 4% to childhood cancer). The walk consists of individual teams. Each of these teams are made in honor of a child who is fighting or has fought cancer. Each team raises money, all of which goes towards finding a cure for all types of childhood cancer.
We have made a team in honor of Lexe called "Team Lexe Kicks". We would love to have as many team members as we can! To register for "Team Lexe Kicks", you can go to our team page which is www.curesearchwalk.org/saltlake/teamlexekicks.
To register, click on the 'register' button. Then click on the picture of Utah. It will take you to the link for the Utah race. Click on that link and agree to the waiver. It will then take you to a page where you select what type of team. Click on Join a team. After that type in the name 'Team Lexe Kicks' and select our team. You will then be directed to our team page. At the top of the page, right under the title, is a 'join our team' button. Click on that and then fill out your information and donation amount. (It is a $10 registration fee for anyone over the age of 15). Click submit and you are done! Those who register before September 2nd will receive a Lexe t-shirt to wear at the walk. Also, even if you don't participate in the actual walk, you can still donate money to our team.

To get more information on CureSearch, what it does and the walk, go to www.curesearchwalk.org. If you have any questions regarding Team Lexe Kicks, please email Hadlee at teamlexekicks@gmail.com. Also, after you have registered, email us your name(s) and t-shirt size(s). Thank you for all of your love and support! We hope you can join us in this event to "Kick Cancer!"

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Lexe started her third round of chemotherapy last friday evening. She will be dosed in the morning and evening thru this coming Wednesday. As mentioned earlier, her chemo will be a total of five days. The duration is shorter than previous rounds but the dosage she is receiving is much higher. Things are going okay. Lexe has developed a sore throat, most likely a result of the chemo. Chemotherapy destroys the fast growing cells in the body which include the lining in the mouth and throat. As expected during chemo, Lexe has no appetite.

As a preventative measure against chemo induced fevers, Lexe has been put on a steroid that she gets prior to every chemo dose. Unfortunately the steroids are leaving Lexe looking kinda puffy right now. A small price to pay to keep the fevers away.

Last Tuesday Danielle Sunderhaus, one of the coaches at the University of Arizona, came to visit Lexe at our home. We have now had all three of Lexe's coaches out to our home. We had a great visit went to lunch and then drove up to Snowbird Ski Resort to take a tram ride. It was fun! We are really looking forward to following the U of A soccer team and know that they are in for a good season.

Lexe and Danielle at the top of Snowbird

Jenn Heslop once again decorated Lexe's hospital room. The room theme for round three is "Laughter Is The Best Medicine". Lexe's room is covered in jokes from family and friends. Thanks Jenn and Carli!!

Monday, July 16, 2012

Lexe has really enjoyed her time at home. Everything feels so normal. However, all good things must come to an end. This coming Wednesday Lexe is scheduled for both a bone marrow aspirate and a spinal tap. This will be outpatient surgery and Lexe will return home after the two procedures. She will be readmitted to the hospital on Friday morning for the start of chemo...round three. Chemo will be given for only five days, unfortunately, the strength of the chemo will increase ten fold!! At this point Lexe's attitude is lets get to the hospital so we can get this over with.

During this break from the hospital Lexe has turned to golf for exercise. Lexe and Laurie have taken a lesson and spent time on the driving range. Lexe has developed a very good golf swing.

Last week lexe received a package in the mail from Amy Rodriguez, a forward on the USA Women's National Team. Amy wrote Lexe a really cool letter and included a shirt signed by the entire Women's National Team. The team played a final warm up match against Canada in Salt Lake City on June 30th
and then departed to London for the olympic games. Really awesome of Amy to take an interest in Lexe.

Jersey signed by US National Team

Overall things are going well. Lexe is positive and happy. Life is good!!

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Round two officially ended with Lexe coming home on Tuesday. It is great to have her home. Our wonderful friends once again greeted Lexe with some cool signage. It sure is nice to know that this unexpected journey is 50% complete.

Lexe will be home for 10-14 days depending on how fast her counts recover. Until then it will be a steady diet of home cooking and a comfortable bed.

The KSL SportsBeat Saturday segment aired last Saturday and we feel that they did a great job. Jeremiah Jensen provided me with the following link to the story:

We have received many comments from people, suffering from a variety of difficult illnesses and situations, who have been buoyed up by Lexe's positive outlook. It is a blessing to all of us that Lexe has chosen to fight cancer with such an amazing attitude. She is mature beyond her years. We all hope that the media exposure that Lexe's story is receiving continues to help others and focuses attention to the fact that many people are battling cancer, especially leukemia.

We stumbled across this great picture of Lexe receiving her high school diploma from Alta High School Principal Fidel Montero. The whole event was so rushed we were never really able to take a good picture. This one really captures the moment.

Lexe and Alta Principal Fidel Montero

A good friend brought Lexe a puppy to play with for the evening

Thanks again to all of our support group. We know we can't do this without you all.